Chicago is known as a “city of neighborhoods,” but I’ve come to think that that’s largely a construct of North Side yuppies, primarily young people in lakefront and West Town apartments. Supposedly it was more common for ethnic whites in the old days to say what parish they came from. My theory is that African-Americans, asked where they live, more often give an intersection: “I stay down by 75th & Damen” rather than “I live in Gresham.”
What’s the case with your African-American acquaintances, in your city? Neighborhood name or location? What about Latinos?
I’ve met plenty of black Chicagoans tell me they live in Chatham or Bronzeville or Kenwood (and, as often, Lakeview or Rogers Park or Andersonville or the Gold Coast). They also refer to Englewood or Austin or Lawndale. I have a Mexican-American friend who identifies where she lives as Chicago Lawn. I know Puerto Ricans who refer to their neighborhoods as Humboldt Park or Pilsen.
So, whether they live in conventionally yuppie neighborhoods or majority-minority neighborhoods, most Chicagoans of color I know use neighborhood nomenclature.
Perhaps it’s just Gresham that’s falling into disuse.
I think it’s a function of reputation. As a neighborhood becomes “bad” in the public consciousness, I think there’s an increasing tendency to refer to major intersection rather than traditional neighborhood name. So I still hear “Hyde Park” and “Kenwood” regularly and with pride (especially since You Know Who made good), but “79th and Cottage Grove”. I had to go googling just now to find out it’s part of Chatham.
The worst of the worst, by reputation: Englewood, Roseland and West Garfield, and increasingly Auburn-Gresham, seem to be referred to by name with a wrinkled nose, by people who DON’T live there. But when I’m in those neighborhoods and ask “what neighborhood is this, anyway?” there’s a long awkward pause before I get an answer…and it’s often an intentionally incorrect answer. I think they’re afraid if I hear the name, I won’t come back. It’s seriously hard to find home health care in some of those neighborhoods; many companies won’t staff there at all.